notes from a recent Daoism seminar

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Here are the notes i gave to students at a recent Daoism seminar.

I hope that they will be useful to those here.

There are a few character mistakes in the section on san guan, please excuse me.

 

Daoism seminar
Sep 27 2014:



San Yuan, san guan, san gong Daoism theory:


Daoist thinking after the time of Laozi (the original Daoist philosopher who wrote the Dao De jing/way of virtue classic) began to evolve a series of descriptive terms which explain how the concept of “qi” (the energy field) works in the world, the universe, and by proxy, people.
These key terms include things like Dan (elixir), Jing, Qi, Shen (essence, energy, and spirit), and include ideas about how each interact with the other.
First, an explanation of the term qi in both classic and modern Daoist culture:
Qi has two major meanings in Daoism – the first 気 is the common character used in modern China to indicate that something contains oxygen or breath – or a certain alive feeling. In early Daoism, this qi is normally related to breath, or natural phenomenon such as emotions.
The second Qi in Daoism is slightly different – 炁, it is made up of the characters 無/无 wu and 火 huo.
In this case, the first part of the character means emptiness, or not having/existing – the second part means fire. The character for emptiness is placed over the top of fire – and as such, its meaning is a fire burning an empty place.
Daoist people after the time of Laozi believed in the idea that longevity could be achieved through alchemy – but in the early stages of Daoism, alchemy was not clearly separated into different schools.
For many hundreds of years, there was a search for a pill of youth, which could be derived from metals such as gold and mercury- as these metals even after being melted could return to their original forms.
This supported the Daoist idea that people could return to the youthfullness of a child, even when they had become very old.
Of course, this type of alchemy caused much suffering, as the ingestion of metals caused various diseases. At the same time, Daoist people also practiced meditation and religion – with these two schools eventually replacing the external alchemy school.
Even though the external school came to an end, the terms used in it continued to apply to both religion and meditation. 炁 continued to be used as a way to talk about the alchemical process of tempering metal through fire – but in this case, it began to mean the refining of emptiness into energy.
This is an analogy to talk about how a fire creates smoke, which gradually rises from it as if by magically appearing from nowhere.
In this case, fire is related to the way the ancient Chinese conceived of the mind – as being something which is active and overpowering. In this case, the mind is hot and palpable, but if it is too hot it will inevitably burn out – this is easy to see when people think too much and cause themselves stress.
In Daoism, the lower abdomen is typically considered to be associated with water, and emptiness.
So the character 炁 basically means that when the intention of the mind is placed into the lower abdomen, it will create an alchemical reaction such as the one that takes place between fire and water.
The steam of the fire will rise and form into a type of energy which may extend into and nourish the body.
This Qi usually follows a path called 元気 yuan qi, which is a circular route of energy from the abdomen, up the spine, over the head, down the chest, and back to the abdomen.
元気 also refers to how energy moves in the universe – because Daoists believe that the energy of the universe is essentially eternal and continuous - 元気 as an idea basically amounts to an ongoing type of energy which always occurs both in the body and in the rest of creation.
Because Chinese culture usually places people as being between the earth and the sky – this gives rise to the idea of a trinity of energies called 三元 san yuan, which brings us around to the first topic of our seminar.

三元 is a phrase meaning the three levels of existence in the world – the heavens (universe), earth (world), a people (conciousness). The heavens are represented by a purely positive energy which is always moving forward and away – it is creative and contains all things. The world is represented by a feminine energy which is receptive and always moves inward and down. Humanity is considered to be the balance of the heaven and earth – something which is both masculine and feminine at the same time. A balance of yin and yang.

三元 therefore is a way of understanding that people must try to achieve both the active quality of heaven, and the passive quality of earth. Heaven and earth are both extreme phenomenon which can not be controlled, but because they meet in the centre as sentient creatures, these creatures are given the ability to work with both of their energies in order to thrive and develop over the course of their lives.

It is therefore imperative in the Daoist framework of thought for people to recognize that they are part of a natural phenomenon which can be harnessed by them in order to improve the quality of their lives.
One of the great goals of Daoism is to do saintly deeds in the world in order to lessen the suffering of other beings – as such, the concept of 三元 is to teach people to work to achieve balance between the positive and the negative – becoming neutral and peaceful.

This is simply another way to talk about creating the balance of Yin and Yang.
Another meaning of 三元 in Daoist thinking is in relationship with three gods – one being the earth god, one being the god of heaven, and the other being the god of the water. These gods in Daoism have a relationship with the other deities, and are considered to be eternal and ephemeral.
These gods are not extremely improtant to the basic study of meditation or philosophy, so we will for the time being ignore them and go on to the concept of
三宫 san gong – or three palaces.
These three palaces are three places in the universe which contain energy – again these things accord with the trinity concept of yin and yang being poles which meet in the middle and create an alchemical process which causes the world to work and take form.
In this case, it also refers to three energy centres in the human body known as the 丹田
dan tian. These are places where 丹 dan, or elixir is contained in the body.
This elixir is a type of energy which is related to Qi and nourishes the body and organs.
It is also considered as a type of spiritual energy that works on three levels - 精 炁 神 jing, qi, shen – or essence, energy, and spirit. The essence energy is located in the lower abdomen, above the genitals and below the kidneys – energy is considered as being located in the chest and related to blood and breath flow being controlled by the lungs and heart – spirit is considered as being the thing which animates the mind and allows people to have perception and know their own existence.

三 关 is therefore mainly a concept about how energy is stored in the body – and about how different types of energy live in different areas. The upper dantian in the head is the palace of the spirit, the middle dantian is the palace where the energy is stored and circulated by the blood and breath, and the lower dantian in the abdomen is the palace where the basic essence of the body is stored and distributed by the glands associated with digestion and sexuality. The three palace theory therefore relates to the idea that the body has three sacred places which accord with the yin of the earth, the yang of the heavens, and the balance of life (as represented by the heaviness of essence, the substantial nature of blood and breath, and the ephemeral nature of the spirit). These three palaces must be balanced according the the fundamental idea that gravity moves all things toward the earth – so again, the idea that the creation of qi works by moving the mind downward to the abdomen is the central principle which allows the energy and later spirit to be regulated by the rising steam coming from the alchemical reaction of the spirit (mind/fire) and essence (emptiness/water). Because both energy and spirit arise from the basic element of the earth – the basic energetic principle of 三宫 is that which moves down must move up.

This theory thus ties in closely with 三官 san guan – three gates.

三关 this is the idea that there are three vital gates that energy moves through in the human body.
The three gates begin at the bottom of the spine in the ming men, go above the kidneys to the jia ji, and end in the space from the neck to the back of the head in the yuzhen.
These gates work in cooperation with the three dantian in the front of the body in order to allow energy to recirculate after it has moved successfully through the front.
These three gates, unlike the dantian, can not be autonomously controlled- they are simply a natural route by which energy moves when provoked by using the fire of the mind to create energy in the lower abdomen.

三 官 another character pronounced as guan, also refers to three types of god in Daoism who regulate the universe in various ways – but this idea is esoteric and of less value than their meaning when applied to the movement of energy and spirit in the body.


In closing, it should be noted that daoism attempts to follow a reverse course in life – viewing the direct course of life as the route to fate – and preferring instead to attempt to bring the body back to the suppleness of a child. Therefore, the three cycles, three palaces, and three gates of Daoism are treated as a way to counteract the bad movement and stagnation of energy in the human body , in order to create a healthier and happier life.

There are a whole array of exercises in Daoist practice to harmonize these three things in the body – with Taijiquan and Qigong being two of the most common and easy to learn ways of cultivating these qualities in active people.
Daoism also uses a meditation method called nei dan, which is the practice of cultivating the great medicine of energy in order to lengthen life and achieve enlightenment.
Although this seminar only touched on the theory of sanyuan, san gong, and san guan – all of this information is applicable to the intelligent practitioner of any type of meditation or martial art/qigong practice.

[Hologram]

Thanks for the interesting notes!

[dawei]

I hate to see these kinds of posts disappear later...

 

If you want a Personal Practice Discussion area where each member can post and/or store threads of choice, let us know.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Oh gee, sorry guys that I didn't see the thread for a few days.

mystery guy hahaha.

I'll introduce a bit about my background:

I am Canadian from Guelph ontario - my Daoist teacher is Yang Hai of montreal/tianjin. he immigrated to Canada about fifteen years ago and started teaching daoist arts in montreal under the name wudang internal. his website is internalstyle.com http://internalstyle.com/jaggyblog/yin-shi-hermits-in-china and the link is a nice article he did on hermit monks in xian.

 

I have lived in china for the last four years and speak and read fluent chinese.

previously i lived in shanghai, but later moved to henan kaifeng. my partner and i are now established in kaifeng and canada where i run a small tea business.

i have studied mainly daosim from master yang, but also have read most of the philosophical books of daoism and several of the meditation classics. I especially like da cheng jie yao, dao de jing chan wei, and yuzi.

I am published in the empty vessel summer issue this year. my article is about the dao de jing being used as meditation text book.

in fact, i would say that in daoism, i am quite knowledgeable on dao de jing, but perhaps my other areas of study could use quite a bit more work.

i teach a little bit, mostly for free. that is because daoism has done so much for me that i need to share it - but my level right now is only at the stage of being a humble student - so even though master Yang asked me to teach for him, I don't feel comfortable to take money for it yet.

 

there are some places in the notes that are not correct - the part that talks about yuan qi is actually about a later stage of practice. the stage i am talking about there is actually called yi qi - which is the foundation stage of energy movement - it results in yuanjing, which is a stage i have achieved in my own practice. i have yet to achieve yuan qi, which is when the qi melds with nature.

I like this site very much, the people are quite friendly and i think that together we have lots of chances to study together and improve!!!

 

glad to meet you all

[GreytoWhite]

Quite a big difference in reception from here to RSF eh? Haha I think the difference is mainly in levels of experience and a greater focus on cultivation than martial art here.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

in my other life i like to smash heads and drink the sweet contents from within.

Daoist things are not suited to many people- it is hard to grasp the feminine and why it may be of value to nurture kindness.

Let every man to his own understanding arrive in his own time.

[BaguaKicksAss]

RSF, uhm, you have no idea how glad I am that it is not like that here!

[Taoist Texts]

the intention of the mind is placed into the lower abdomen, it will create an alchemical reaction such as the one that takes place between fire and water

as simple as that.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

I think it was zhang bouduan who said that the dantian was the basis of the whole cultivation of daoism.

The way I like to look at it is that all texts and methods are basically ways to understand a practice which is basically the same.

You can get as complicated in description as you want, but the end result should be as simple as a hackberry bush

[exorcist_1699]

" Da cheng jie yao " (' 大成捷要' ) is an amazing book , it talks a lot about Yang Shen's out-of-body symptom & steps... , if you compare it with books on death , ie, on those yin-typed spirits' journey ..., written by those Tibetan monks in the West , in spiritual realm, what is superb , what is low-end can clearly be identified , anyway, it is sad that there is no English translation of it .

 

Because I read it before I read those stuff related to medical qigong, Wu-Liu school's writings...etc, you can imagine how shocking it can be...

[phoenix_darshan]

There is actually a part translation of 'Da Cheng Jie Yao' , the essentials of the shortcut to the great achievement' that I came across through research on this webpage:

http://fiveimmortals.com/the-essentials-of-the-shortcut-to-the-great-achievement/

 

By the looks of it it seems to contain many valuable explanations form a Daoist priest that are not part of the original text